“Pinky Fein, a friend of Oscar's, owns the Gilded Lily, a four-star Midtown restaurant renowned for its beggar purses- paper-thin crepes filled with créme fraîche and Beluga caviar, tied into small bundles with chives, lightly sprayed with edible gold leaf, and presented like candles in a candelabra.” PursesCaviarCrepesFancy Fancy Book:Girl Cook: A Novel Source: Girl Cook: A Novel
“He passed the rutabaga and duck terrine toward me with the tips of his fingers. "Isn't this a little odd?" I wanted to like it, I did. I pushed the ingredients around with my knife and fork, trying to understand it and formulate an opinion. Then Felix swooped in. "Oh, miss. Pardon me, I was helping another table. That's supposed to be served with something else." He looked at Michael Saltz sheepishly, and Michael Saltz turned his toupeed head away. "We added this dish today, and I'm still getting used to serving it. The proper preparation includes just a bit of truffle." He took out a fist-size beige knot from underneath a white napkin. The shavings rained down in ruffled, translucent strands. Felix backed away as I poked my fork through the tangle of truffles, into the terrine. I had read about truffles- their taste, their hormonal, almost sexual aromas, their exorbitant cost- but I had never even seen a truffle in person before, and had a hard time understanding why people paid thousands of dollars an ounce for something so humble-looking. But at Tellicherry, I understood. I melted in my chair. "Mmm..." I couldn't stop saying it. "Mmmm." Michael Saltz, excited too, picked up a large pinch of truffle shavings and held them to his nose. "These are very good. The finest." "Oh God," I said, in a state of delirium. "This makes the dish so much better. Why aren't truffles on everything?" I had forgotten about the funky terrine. Now it was just a vehicle for the magical urgings of the truffle. A few minutes later, Felix came out again. "Here's your next dish, potato pearls with black, green, and crimson caviar in a cauliflower cream nage." The caviar shined like little jewels among the equal-sized potatoes. They bobbed around in the soup, glistening as if illuminated from within. I took a spoonful and in surged a soft, sweet ribbon of cauliflower essence. I popped the caviar eggs one by one. Pop, went one, a silken fishiness. Pop, went another, a sharp, tangy brine. Pop, went a seductive one, dark and mysterious and deep.” ExpensiveCaviarTrufflesFancy Fancy Book:Food Whore Source: Food Whore
“I piled my plate high with deviled eggs topped with caviar, pastry boats full of crab salad, tea sandwiches layered with butter and thin slices of cucumber, and warm dates stuffed with nuts and drizzled with honey. I'll say this for Mayor Gunderson: He knew how to cater an event.” BuffetFancy Fancy Book:Guilt and Ginataan Source: Guilt and Ginataan